Suzanne Dobbs, Social Studies Teacher, Brethren Christian High School, Huntington Beach, California
Some student questions are unanswerable, yet these can serve as springboards for promoting interest, learning, and discovery.
When my daughter has closed her bedroom door, she is indicating, “Stay out!” Perhaps her room is messy and she knows I’ll make her clean, or she’s supposed to be doing homework but is watching television. A closed door is often a sign that something is wrong. An open door says just the opposite: “Come on in! Let me share with you!” Openness implies welcomeness, friendliness, and honesty—the atmosphere I want in my classroom. So I keep the doors open. I desire to have an inviting view from the outside that causes students to think, “Something interesting is happening in there, and I want to be a part of it.” I also want a view from the inside looking out that causes students to think, “Wow, I never noticed that before!” Both views come from a well-designed curriculum that includes several elements, each requiring teacher planning, student interaction, or both.
Enduring Understandings
When my ninth-grade Geography and Current Issues class was analyzing the Creation story, the questions raised during an open discussion were intriguing. “Why did God create the world in seven days instead of one or eight?” “Why did He choose the order explained in Genesis?” “What does it matter whether we believe in Creation or evolution or the big bang?” Openness is simultaneously intriguing and messy. Some student questions are unanswerable, yet these can serve as springboards for promoting interest, learning, and discovery.
One of the benefits of Christian education is the freedom we have to a create dynamic curriculum that points our students to the kingdom of heaven. We begin with the end in mind. Grant Wiggins, a secular educational leader in curriculum design, has articulated this process and developed a model called backwards design (1998). Creating a curriculum involves selecting big ideas at the heart of the discipline, ideas with lasting value beyond the classroom. Wiggins calls these “enduring understandings.” Because they can direct the curriculum and foster a particular worldview, these guiding big ideas have lasting relevance in the lives of students. I want my students to continue—even after 20 years or more—to have a spiritually accurate picture of the world in their heads, to reconcile the view of justice through the eyes of God with the view through the changing eyes of government, and to hold firm to a business philosophy based on biblical concepts.
Biblical Integration of Faith and Learning
A well-designed curriculum purposely arranges opportunities for faith and learning to converge. Theories, behaviors, and values collide with Christianity across all disciplines. Harro Van Brummelen, a Christian educational leader, provides a worldview filter through which all curricular content should pass (2002). He writes that we must consider how we teach each topic in relation to the three mandates God has given us. The Creation mandate means that God has created reality, which reflects His handiwork, and that we are responsible to be stewards of His creation. Further, separate secular and sacred realms do not exist because all truth is God’s truth. The second mandate is the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37–39, NIV): “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” God’s third mandate is the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19–20, NIV): “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” In other words, Christian schools and teachers are responsible to help students face three essential questions: How can I know God? How can humankind live with one another? and How can humankind live with nature?
Focus
In every discipline, the scope of information far surpasses what junior high or high school students can access and understand, given our limited classroom time. In order to focus on the most important information, I use a model that prioritizes material into three categories. “Need-to-know information” is the knowledge, facts, and skills necessary for students to uncover the enduring understandings. “Information worth knowing” provides background, color, and texture to the subject. “Irrelevant information” is a distraction that has no bearing on the enduring understandings. This model provides a doublecheck mechanism by asking the question, How does this information or lesson build toward the enduring understandings and big ideas of this unit?
Activities and Student-Centered Learning
Can you imagine a classroom in which Christ required the disciples to memorize scrolls of Scripture and listen to His lectures? Jesus taught through modeling and requiring participation. He taught by such activities as washing feet and sending His students into towns to preach the good news. The twelve learned through some very tactile experiences. Lessons and units designed around student action lead to student understanding. Grant Wiggins explains six facets of understanding: explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and selfknowledge (1998). All of these require action by students. One of the greatest compliments to teachers is the question, “What are we going to do today?” It used to annoy me until I realized that it came from students who were actually anticipating doing something interesting and meaningful. A student-focused classroom is not silent but is instead interactive and purposeful.
Assessment
Open doors at our school have provided opportunities for teachers to design and implement some amazing projects with the assistance of colleagues.
Evaluation of student understanding can come by way of student demonstrations, explanations, and products. If established ahead of time, rubrics provide a reliable measurement, provided they explicitly state expectations and grading scales. Rubrics help students know where they are going and how to get there. Teachers can observe students throughout the process and redirect when necessary. Rubrics also provide detailed feedback about what students have done well and what they should improve. Since implementing rubrics, I have fewer students and parents who are angry and fewer complaints such as, “Why did you give me a B on this paper? I spent 10 hours writing it!” Most importantly, the focus shifts from earning a grade to learning and doing a good job. Students can also get a rearview-mirror look into how far they’ve progressed by assembling portfolios, reflecting on work done throughout the year, and using rubrics with their portfolios.
Collegiality
Open doors at our school have provided opportunities for teachers to design and implement some amazing projects with the assistance of colleagues. As collaborating helps us develop professionally, it provides fun! Highlights of the year include watching geometry students construct bridges and test their weight load, physics students build cardboard and duct-tape boats that are piloted and raced by teachers and administrators, algebra classes bungee jump Barbie dolls, and Spanish students put on a Christmas puppet show for local Head Start students.
I encourage you to open the doors and let the fresh air in via a well-designed curriculum. The benefits will be phenomenal for you, colleagues, the school, and most importantly, students.
References
Van Brummelen, Harro. 2002. Steppingstones to curriculum: A biblical path. Colorado Springs, CO: Purposeful Design Publications.
Wiggins, Grant. 1998. Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
What Happens When the Doors Open? 7.2